Using Structural and Functional Brain Imaging to Investigate Responses to Acute Thermal Pain - 27/06/16
, Vera Fegers-Stollenwerk ∗, Ivan I. Maximov ∗, Farida Grinberg ∗, †, N. Jon Shah ∗, †, ‡Abstract |
Despite a fundamental interest in the relationship between structure and function, the relationships between measures of white matter microstructural coherence and functional brain responses to pain are poorly understood. We investigated whether fractional anisotropy (FA) in 2 white matter regions in pathways associated with pain is related to the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response to thermal stimulation. BOLD fMRI was measured from 16 healthy male subjects during painful thermal stimulation of the right arm. Diffusion-weighted images were acquired for each subject and FA estimates were extracted from the posterior internal capsule and the cingulum (cingulate gyrus). These values were then included as covariates in the fMRI data analysis. We found BOLD response in the midcingulate cortex (MCC) to be positively related to FA in the posterior internal capsule and negatively related to FA in the cingulum. Our results suggest that the MCC's involvement in processing pain can be further delineated by considering how the magnitude of the BOLD response is related to white matter microstructural coherence and to subjective perception of pain. Considering relationships to white matter microstructural coherence in tracts involved in transmitting information to different parts of the pain network can help interpretation of MCC BOLD activation.
Perspective |
Relationships between functional brain responses, white matter microstructural coherence, and subjective ratings are crucial for understanding the role of the MCC in pain. These findings provide a basis for investigating the effect of the reduced white matter microstructural coherence observed in some pain disorders on the functional responses to pain.
Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.Highlights |
• | The potential effects of white matter changes on functional responses to pain are highlighted. |
• | Brain structure and function were explored without microstructural changes seen in chronic pain. |
• | These findings can inform the design of future experiments on midcingulate cortex function and pain. |
Key words : Acute pain, functional magnetic resonance imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, fractional anisotropy, multimodal imaging
Plan
| Current address for Ivan I. Maximov: Experimental Physics III, TU Dortmund University, Dortmund, Germany. |
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| The work reported was made possible by institutional funding as part of the Programme Oriented Funding provided by the Helmholtz Society. N.J.S. is funded in part by the Helmholtz Alliance ICEMED—Imaging and Curing Environmental Metabolic Diseases, through the Initiative and Network Fund of the Helmholtz Association, and in part through the EU FP7 project TRIMAGE (grant number 602621). |
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| The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. |
Vol 17 - N° 7
P. 836-844 - juillet 2016 Retour au numéro
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